


The Hybrid Theory

by CobaltStargazer



Category: Angel: the Series, Ash vs Evil Dead (TV)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Demons, F/M, First Meetings, Humor, Hybrids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-03
Updated: 2017-03-03
Packaged: 2018-09-28 00:04:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10058069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CobaltStargazer/pseuds/CobaltStargazer
Summary: Its the damnedest place to have a meet-cute, but considering who they are, it isn't that surprising.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this as a crossover challenge for a group I belong to.

Ruby met Connor in the middle of a bar fight. It was that simple and that complicated.

Trying to find the damned Book - and she meant that literally - had proven to be more difficult than she'd imagined. Not that the trail of destruction left in its wake was that hard to spot, but the Necronomicon itself was a slippery thing. Not surprising, she supposed, since humans craved power. Thinking they could harness the Book, use it for their own purposes, was usually their downfall. Only pure demons could utilize it and escape unscathed, the ones like herself. Better for it to be in her hands than in some foolish mortal's.

She hadn't been paying much attention to the skinny guy nursing a beer at the bar, his too-long hair obscuring his eyes as he hunkered on a padded stool. Not at first. She'd taken him for a drifter at best, since his jeans had holes in both knees and his sneakers had seen better days about five years ago. There was a backpack next to him on the floor, marking him as homeless, rootless.

In hindsight, Ruby recognized the markers more clearly, but it wasn't until the vampires tromped into the establishment, looking either for a fight or a feed, that her perception changed. As a pureblood, she looked down as vamps as the lowest of the low, hybrids so tainted that neither God nor the devil knew what to do with them. Not that her opinion of humans was that much better at times, but vampires were the definition of bottom feeders.

For Connor's part, he had been tracking that particular bunch of bloodsuckers since Flagstaff, which was the first place he'd wandered to after leaving Los Angeles. He'd wanted to get away from the bad memories and out of Angel's shadow, so he'd packed what he could carry and took off. Better to be on his own while he got his head sorted out than to be confronted every day with his father's legacy. He'd seen the blonde in a corner booth in passing, detected a pulse, and moved on. He was attentive enough to his surroundings that he sensed something _slightly_ off, but a heartbeat took her off of the wanted list. 

The vamps were fairly young, having been turned a couple of months ago, and that made them rash. Reckless and stupid, but also more prone to random acts of carnage. The older ones, _sometimes_ they could learn to control themselves, but the fledges had forgotten what the word restraint meant between their death and rising. It made them easier to spot, but the downside was that by the time they'd been spotted, the violence had already started.

The violence in this case was the lead vampire grabbing one of the waitresses and sinking his fangs into her shoulder. He was short and stocky, and when she screamed and tried to shake him off, blood from the wound pattered onto the floor as it widened. The coppery smell of it touched the Destroyer's sensitive nose, and he scowled as he put down his beer, which he'd barely touched. He'd only bought it so he could blend in, he didn't even really like the stuff.

What happened next happened very fast. More vampires invaded the bar, and the patrons began to panic even as Connor drove a stake into Short-And-Stocky's chest, causing him to explode into ash that swirled in the shape of a body before sprinkling the floor. The bleeding waitress stared at him in shock, and he pushed her towards the storeroom, where she could bolt the door.

"Go!! He yelled it at her above the rising din, glasses breaking and furniture smashing, and she went, weeping and bordering on hysteria.

In all her years as a demon, Ruby had never seen anything like it, and she'd seen a _lot_. But the shaggy-haired kid at the bar, because he couldn't have been much more than twenty, moved like a dervish. She'd crawled behind the bar when the second wave started, since she didn't want any of the vampires spotting her and forcing her to use her powers to dispatch them. Bloodsuckers were one thing. If anyone got wind of what _she_ was, the pitchforks and torches wouldn't be far behind. The little pack of fledglings didn't stand a chance, even when three of them charged him at once.

It was like breathing, the way his lungs expanded and contracted, and when one of the remaining vampires got her arm around Connor's neck and tried to cut off his oxygen supply, he instinctively turned himself into dead weight. Broken glass crunched as he went to his knees, and she bore down harder. He felt his calf start to bleed as a piece of a broken beer mug broke the skin, and his teeth gritted together while he groped for the chair leg that was _just_ out of reach.

" **Begone!** "

It was the voice of an angry parent, a mother who had caught her child doing something forbidden, and the force of the single word pushed the vampire off of Connor and backward five feet. Ruby's eyes were obsidian, and the vamp scrabbled for purchase on the debris-strewn floor as she slid farther backwards. The Destroyer watched from where he was crouched on the floor as she started to smolder, and his attention was drawn to the blonde from before, who was glowering balefully at the vampire. The smell of undead flesh starting to cook made him gag, because it always smelled like boiled gym socks when you set them on fire. 

Burning, the bloodsucker tried to flee, but she crashed into the silent jukebox, which had been quiet for most of the night. Ruby watched her go up in flames indifferently. She bore them no ill will, not really, but they made so much _noise_ and drew so much attention to themselves. When the controlled blaze finally subsided, she let out a breath.

"I could have handled that. I was handling it."

Connor's voice was annoyed, and he sat up. His leg was still bleeding, but it was down to an ooze. That smell was going to be in the back of his throat for days. The blonde's eyes were back to normal when she looked at him, a curious little half-smile touching her mouth.

"Yes, you were quite...impressive."

She felt vaguely amused, and yet also troubled. Because he was human, and yet not human. No ordinary man could have faced off against a pack of eager fledglings and only sustained a few cuts and bruises. Ruby watched him pick himself up warily, irritated by the uncertainty she felt. She was a pureblood, a Dark One. Immortal. And he was...what?

"I should have clocked you when I walked in."

The Destroyer moved back to the bar, rolled up the leg of his jeans to inspect the cut, which wasn't very deep. One stitch, maybe two, if he even bothered. He'd been hurt worse. At closer range, she still looked normal, but there was a whiff of Otherness. Connor leaned infinitesimally closer, breathed in. She twitched backwards, away from him, and his mobile features tightened into a faint scowl.

"Clocked me?"

Up close, he was older than he looked, and she mentally adjusted his age to mid-twenties. But he was still human, still a child. His blue eyes, though, held a layer of something unfathomable. Demon? A revenant of some kind? Ruby bent forward, trying to peer more closely. He put one hand on her wrist, because she'd flattened her palm against the bar for balance. His hair was still in his face.

_I know you. Don't I?_

"I'm Connor." And damn it, but he'd almost said 'Stephen'. Because maybe he didn't want her knowing his name. But when he had at least three of them to pick from, why settle for simply using one? Sometimes beggars _could_ be choosers.

"My name's Ruby." _Not that you could pronounce the other one, so let's leave it at that._

Up this close, she was attractive, the sharpness of her face offset by how full her mouth was, and the inhuman thing inside Connor opened one inquisitive eye. Because she _was_ Other, he just didn't know what kind of Other. Her wrist was warm under his hand, and whatever resided within her had gone quiet. But he could almost hear the thrum of it, under her flesh and in her bones. And yes, part of him was repelled, but the other half of him, his colder self, felt the insane urge to faceplant right into her cleavage.

_He can't hurt you. He's just a boy. A very strong boy, but you are eternal._ She grabbed on to the inner mantra to distract herself from the blue of his eyes, to avoid pushing the hair off of his forehead. He smelled like sweat and road dust. And his fingers were far too thin to be as strong as they felt.

"Are you going to try to kill me?"

"No. I don't think so, anyway. I'm not sure I could. Kill you."

He let go of her wrist, and Ruby let herself break the stare as if it was a victory. But during the last few minutes, she'd gotten wet, because the human shell she was housed in had needs, needs that hadn't been tended to in a while because she'd been so focused on her mission. And human-and-yet-not-human Connor had fought like a madman, a warrior, a Cossack. She was not a combatant at heart, if only because after so many years war had grown boring. When you could wipe out an entire army with a stomp of your foot, there were few challenges worth taking in that area. She looked at the day's worth of beard on his jaw in profile, because he was going through his pack, and she felt discomfited and aggravated because this was a **boy**.

Connor couldn't remember the last time he'd been so aware of a woman. He liked women and enjoyed their company, but relationships were just beyond his realm of experience. He'd get nervous and awkward and weird, or they would realize he wasn't entirely human, but either way it usually ended badly. He was a little pissed off that Ruby's Otherness didn't make him want to run in the other direction. Whatever she was, she wasn't completely benign. But then again, neither was he.

He snuck a look at her, and she was looking at him in kind. "What?" A little annoyed, a little intrigued.

"I was just thinking that you can't grow a beard worth a damn."

He actually laughed, surprising her, and when he rubbed his hand over his face the bristles made noise against his fingers. "Yeah, it always comes in patchy," he agreed, and she had to fight the smile, because she hadn't expected her bluntness to amuse him. He looked like he could get pretty sensitive, even overly sensitive, but maybe not all the time. Hmm.

"So you're just....what, passing through, as they say?"

Connor shrugged, a noncommittal gesture. He wasn't really going much of anywhere, since he had no plan in place. He could go where he wished, and sometimes he even ended up where he was needed. He gave Ruby another sideways look, and she reached over and shoved the hair out of his face. So she could _really_ look at him.

"You have too nice a face to hide."

Her palm was warm against his forehead, and his other self had both eyes open now. Could he hurt her? He didn't know. Could _she_ hurt him? Very probably. The clock over her shoulder said that it was just past two a.m., which was last call. The bar had emptied out, the other patrons having fled. His mind ticked over to the waitress he'd sent into the storeroom. Connor broke the stare this time, and he backed off. 

"I gotta go check on that woman, see if she's okay." Pause. "Don't leave."

It was gratifying, in a way, to know that she'd gotten to him. But it was also worrying, because she didn't know his intentions. And that he'd practically ordered her to stay put was an irritation, if only because she'd righted a padded stool and settled her weight on it.. To wait for him to come back. She didn't take orders from humans, not willingly. But he wasn't a full human, so maybe one exception couldn't hurt?

The Destroyer found the waitress huddled behind some boxes of Jack Daniels, and he coaxed her out so he could inspect her shoulder. The wound had clotted, and he coaxed her further out so they could look for her purse and car keys. Ruby was still seated at the bar, watching them, her hand propped on her chin and looking for all the world as if she did this every night. Maybe she did, Connor had no idea. The waitress gave him a clumsy one-armed hug after he walked her outside. "You...you saved my life. Thank God you were here."

_God. Right._

He watched her tail lights disappear, wondering if she'd need a hospital. Wondering if anyone would believe her if she told the truth. The night air was cool on his skin, drying the last of the perspiration. He looked over his shoulder at the door, and then he turned on the heel of one worn-down sneaker and went back inside. Ruby had apparently elected not to vanish in a puff of black smoke. Or fly out of the place on a broom or however the hell she got around.

"So."

"So?"

From her it was a question, and she gauged his posture from where she sat, her chin still resting in her palm. Connor's shoulders twitched up and down, another shrug. He was too aware of her, that she had looked right at him, without flinching away. He'd seen the coldness, clocked it too late, and yet...

_Like knows like._

He shoved the thought of the way as much as he could, got closer to her. She was simply looking at him. He was the Destroyer, the prophesied child who had grown into a man, and whatever Other she may have been, she was an Other he could live with. The corners of that full, inviting mouth turned upwards, a teasing smile. He could feel his cock stiffening inside his jeans.

"You don't talk much. I like that. Humans as a whole are fine, but they just _talk_ all the damn time. I like someone who knows when to shut up."

Because she could tell him now, trust him that far. Because he wasn't planning to kill her, or even try to kill her, since if he had been he'd have done it by now. This was a man who acted, who took his thumb out of that cute little backside and did things without asking a lot of pointless questions. And if she was worried at all about what other damage he could do to her, how badly he could shatter her if she didn't watch out, it was way down at the bottom of her list of priorities. He held out his hand, and she went to him.

They ended up in the storeroom, which was dim and smelled like dust. His scruffy beard rubbed against her cheek before she found his mouth, and it was hungry and a little desperate. She could feel his hard-on, first against the inside of her thigh and then between her legs, and her cunt was slick even though he'd barely touched her. Her hips moved in a tight circle, and then he grabbed her ass with a preternaturally strong hand. 

"Unless you want me to come in my pants, slow down. It's been a long time."

Ruby stilled herself, and really she was delighted at the commanding tone. He was grateful for her attention, she could read that on his face, but he wasn't so grateful that he was going to get on his hands and knees for her. And it had been a while for her too. All work and no play made for a dull girl.

Connor slipped his hand between her thighs, and he could feel the wetness threatening to soak through the denim of her jeans. She scared him a little, but it was the kind of scared that had him running towards her instead of away. He boosted her up, set her on a low shelf, and she tugged on his hair as he unfastened her jeans. First the button, then the zipper.

"Connor..."

Her pulse fluttered against his lips when he kissed the hollow of her throat, and the heat of her blazed out at him as he pulled her jeans down and then off. Her thighs were pale in the badly-lit room, and he had the fleeting thought that it was hellfire coming off of her. He cast the notion aside as he slipped a finger into her, then a second. Hell, heaven, his other self was indifferent to both. It was neither saved nor damned, it simply was.

She squeaked when his hand started to move, and the squeak turned into a moan as she opened her legs wider, splaying herself. His eyes were intent on her face,, she could feel him watching her, and as he fucked her with his fingers she let herself be carried away by it. It wasn't gentle or even romantic, but it satisfied a craving that had been sparked when she'd watched him spring into battle. Ruby rode Connor's callused fingers, his weapon-worn hand agile, as if he knew precisely how she wanted to be touched. Beneath her, the shelf creaked, but the sturdy workmanship felt guaranteed to hold up.

"Wait." 

She was panting, a little embarrassed by how close she already was, but her hips were betraying her. Ruby flailed out with the hand not gripping the edge of the shelf, found Connor's deceptively thin wrist. In the dimness, she saw his teeth flash. "Wait, just for a second, I want..."

He let her stop him, but the way his teeth nipped down her throat meant he wasn't to be deterred for long. And he had a feeling he knew what she wanted, anyway. He bit the spot where her pulse was thrumming, marking her. Then marking her again, more deliberately. 

He was dismantling her, taking her apart one brick at the time. Ruby could feel herself being deconstructed, and she was afraid of it, but she was also elated. If Connor's Otherness was strong enough that he could know what she was and not flee...she couldn't let herself finish the thought. Not when her heart seemed to be pulsing in every nerve ending.

"Tell me." He was sweating again, she could feel the dampness against her skin when he leaned closer. "Tell me what you want."

"Your cock."

The Destroyer laughed, a ragged noise, and for a second he couldn't breathe because he was too close, _she_ was too close. He could smell her, her arousal, sharp and pungent and delightful. His usually nimble hands fumbled awkwardly with his belt, and after a struggle the buckle jingled as he unfastened it. Precum had leaked from the tip of his dick, wetting his cotton briefs.

"I can't promise much foreplay." A warning, but even in the lack of light he saw her shake her head, an almost frantic negation.

"I don't care. I want you inside me when I come." Because maybe she wanted to see if she could dismantle him too.

The shelf creaked again when he pushed into her, and she was so much tighter than he'd expected. Connor made a high-pitched noise, almost a whine, and he buried his face into the side of Ruby's sweat-damp neck. Her fingers dug into his sides as he held himself there, feeling him filling her, stretching her, and oh fuck but it was (pardon the pun) heavenly.

"Come on, Connor." 

Her voice was sandpapery, and her eyes went from blue to black and back to blue in rapid succession before she squeezed them shut. His hand had a death grip on her ass, and her nipples rubbed almost painfully against his t shirt. "Come on, superhero, fuck me."

It was the 'superhero' that did it, yanked the composure right out of him as though he'd never possessed it in the first place. His jeans had slid past his knees by now, and he impatiently kicked free of them, discarding his shoes in the bargain. He saw her in the unreliable light of the single thirty watt bulb overhead, and when he cupped her jaw his thumb slipped into her mouth. She was watching his eyes when she started to suck on it.

The workmanship of the shelving was put to the test when he started to saw in and out of her, and if he'd ever been as hard as he was right now, he couldn't remember it. Her cunt was like a wet glove, the slick coating his cock, and her breasts were loose and heavy inside her shirt, jiggling in time with his thrusts. She had one hand braced against the edge of the shelf, using that as leverage to push back, and when he put one hand on the inside of her thigh and spread her wider, Ruby let out an obscene noise. One that was muffled, because she still had Connor's thumb in her mouth and didn't want to let go of it.

The base of his cock rubbed against her clit with each push, and he swore when he felt her quiver. It rippled like tiny waves on a still pond, radiating outwards, and he gritted his teeth as he started to thrust deeper. Because he wanted to see what she looked like when she was coming. if whatever her real self looked like would announce itself. The lightweight cotton of his shirt was stuck to his chest and shoulders due to their mixed sweat, the smell of sex heavy and cloying.

"You're glorious."

It was a benediction, a supplication, because as infernal as she may have been, she was also luminous, spread out there for him in the poor light. Connor gripped Ruby's hips as he hunkered over her, bottoming out with each stroke, staring down into those blue, blue eyes.

It was enough to finish her off, seeing his eyes at such close range, and she came with a yell that echoed off the walls of the little storeroom. And then again when he rushed to catch up with her, his pelvis slapping against the insides of her thighs in a staccato rhythm. A third time, because he put his hand between their bodies and found her clit, rubbing the stiff little nub between his thumb and forefinger. Their eyes stayed locked, fixated, until finally the last of the aftershocks spent themselves, leaving Ruby limp and exhausted.

"Goddamn." 

She said it first, but Connor echoed her a second later, just as heartfelt. "Goddamn." He was still half on top of her, his knees having given up their task of supporting him for the time being. His cock was softening, slipping out of that wonderful tightness, and he registered the sensation through the haze of completion. When he slanted his mouth over hers, it was almost romantic. And when she kissed him back, it broke him a little, enough that he stayed where he was until they'd both recovered. 

"I haven't been fucked like that in months."

Ruby said it as she was trying to find her jeans, her legs still dangerously wobbly, and he was trying to go back to being closed off. But the remark drew an amused look out of him, and he raised an eyebrow in her direction. As if he might even be a little flattered.

"Months?"

"Shut up."

He found his jeans, watched his hands while he buckled his belt instead of looking at her. He could still feel the warmth and wetness of her, the way she'd nearly fellated his thumb. It was enough to scramble his brain, especially since she'd kissed him back. Open mouthed, no less. He didn't know what he'd expected, but it hadn't been that. Not really. Connor blew the hair out of his eyes, made a mental note to get it cut. 

"Ruby?"

"Yeah?"

She'd found her jeans by then, was still holding them when she turned to find him right inside her bubble, looking at her with a question mark practically written across his forehead. He smelled like sex, a combination of her scent and his, and her hands tightened a little on the denim. She had yet to piece together the puzzle he represented, despite the urgency of what they'd just done. And she might not get another chance after this.

"Con..."

He kissed her cheek, avoiding her mouth on purpose, then said, "I... _we_ should probably get out of here. If that waitress finds someone who doesn't think she's lost her mind, there'll be cops soon. And I gotta be somewhere else."

He didn't elaborate, and she didn't ask. They'd wandered into each other's lives, and maybe that was how it should stay. But Ruby allowed herself the luxury of saying, "Watch yourself, okay? Or at least get someone to watch your back."

The Destroyer snorted out a laugh as he hovered in the doorway, thinking that if she was a demon or if she was something else altogether, she wasn't entirely bad. "Don't set anyone on fire unless its an emergency."

His bike was still out in the lot, parked safely away from the vehicles that had sped out of the lot earlier. Connor looked at the closed door before putting his helmet on, then kicked the engine into life. Maybe he should swing back through here next time he was in the area.

Just in case.


End file.
